Sherdog Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

Middleweight

May 28, 2009

Marcelo Alonso/Sherdog.com

Anderson "The Spider"
Silva

Middleweight

1. Anderson
Silva (24-4)
Drawing scorn for his lackluster April title defense against
Thales
Leites, Silva was clearly in need of an interesting challenge.
Now Silva, who has taken out elite welterweights and middleweights
in his career, will have the chance to take out an elite light
heavyweight at UFC 101 on Aug. 8 when he meets former 205-pound
king Forrest
Griffin.

2. Yushin Okami
(23-4)Yushin
Okami is becoming more and more familiar with ill-timed
injuries. After a hand injury lost him a potential shot against
Anderson
Silva late last year, a knee injury and training removed him
from his bout at UFC 98 against Dan
Miller.

3. Nate
Marquardt (28-8-2)Nate
Marquardt is keen to rematch divisional ace Anderson Silva, who
iced him in July 2007. In order to get another chance at "The
Spider" and the UFC middleweight title, Marquardt will need to take
out his biggest challenge since his bout with Silva in undefeated
BJJ king Demian Maia
at UFC 102 on Aug. 29.

4. Robbie
Lawler (16-4, 1 NC)
EliteXC’s one-time middleweight champion will look to pick up where
he left off when his former employer closed up shop. “Ruthless”
takes on fellow former EliteXC welterweight champion Jake Shields
in the headliner of Strikeforce’s June 6 bill on Showtime.

5. Dan
Henderson (24-7)
It was not without a bit of a brouhaha, but Henderson earned a
split decision over Rich
Franklin at UFC 93 in Dublin, Ireland, on Jan. 17. Now, the
former two-division Pride Fighting Championships titleholder has
earned a lengthy promotional vehicle coaching against Michael
Bisping on the ninth season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” The
season’s larger payoff will be a marquee bout against Michael
Bisping at UFC 100 in July.

6. Demian Maia
(10-0)
Few fighters if any have been as impressive as Demian Maia
over the last 14 months. The road to a shot at the UFC middleweight
title for Maia now runs through Nathan Marquardt at UFC 102 on Aug.
29.

7. Jorge
Santiago (21-7)
In the first defense of his Sengoku middleweight title, Jorge
Santiago will be in for a rematch regardless, as Kazuhiro
Nakamura and Kazuo Misaki
square off on Aug. 2 in a title eliminator. It was Nakamura who
Santiago bested to win Sengoku's middleweight tournament last
November. Santiago followed that up by pulling out the fifth-round
submission over Misaki in January to win the promotion's title.

8. Thales
Leites (14-2)
No doubt wanting to erase the memories of his April title challenge
against Anderson Silva, Leites has quickly accepted a bout with
Italian striker Alessio
Sakara at UFC 101 on Aug. 8.

9. Vitor
Belfort (18-8)
Early indications were that the new-look, middleweight Belfort
would meet divisional stalwart Gegard
Mousasi under the Affliction banner in August. However, with
Mousasi adamant on not cutting down to middleweight again, it looks
like Belfort will be in for another opponent.

10. Chael Sonnen
(23-10-1)
You'd be hard-pressed to find too many people who think of Chael Sonnen
as an elite middleweight. Fortunately for the Team Quester, results
are what count, and with a dominant display over top-15 opposition
in Dan
Miller, and Gegard
Mousasi's exit from the division, Sonnen re-enters these
rankings.